Dr. Sampson was the first to speak. "There," said he, under his breath: "didn"t I tell you? This man is sane. There"s sanity in every line."
"Well, but," said Edward, "do you mean to say that in the present day--"
"Mai--dearr--sirr. Mankind niver changes. Whativer the muscles of man _can_ do in the light, the mind and conscience of man will consent to do in the dark."
Julia said never a word.
Mrs. Dodd, too, was for action not for talk. She bade them all a hasty adieu, and went on her good work.
Ere she got to the street door, she heard a swift rustle behind her; and it was Julia flying down to her, all glowing and sparkling with her old impetuosity, that had seemed dead for ever. "No, no," she cried, panting with generous emotion; "it is to me it was sent. _I_ am torn from him I love, and by some treachery I dare say: and _I_ have suffered--oh you shall never know what I have suffered. Give it _me,_ oh pray, pray, pray give it _me. I"ll_ take it to Whitehall."
CHAPTER XLIII
IF we could always know at the time what we are doing.
Two ladies carried a paper to Whitehall out of charity to a stranger.
Therein the elder was a benefactress to a man she had never spoken of but as "the Wretch;" the younger held her truant bridegroom"s heart, I may say, in her hand all the road and was his protectress. Neither recognised the hand-writing; for no man can write his own hand with a toothpick.
They reached Whitehall, and were conducted upstairs to a gentleman of pleasant aspect but powerful brow, seated in a wilderness of letters.
He waved his hand, and a clerk set them chairs: he soon after laid down his pen, and leaned gravely forward to hear their business. They saw they must waste no time; Julia looked at her mother, rose, and took Alfred"s missive to his desk, and handed it him with one of her eloquent looks, grave and pitiful. He seemed struck by her beauty and her manner.
"It was pinned on my parasol, sir, by a poor prisoner at Drayton House,"
said Mrs. Dodd.
"Oh, indeed," said the gentleman, and began to read the superscription with a cold and wary look. But thawed visibly as he read. He opened the missive and ran his eye over it. The perusal moved him not a little: a generous flush mounted to his brow; he rang the bell sharply. A clerk answered it; the gentleman wrote on a slip of paper, and said earnestly, "Bring me every letter that is signed with that name, and all our correspondence about him."
He then turned to Mrs. Dodd, and put to her a few questions, which drew out the main facts I have just related. The papers were now brought in.
"Excuse me a moment," said he, and ran over them. "I believe the man is sane," said he, "and that you will have enabled us to baffle a conspiracy, a heartless conspiracy."
"We do hope he will be set free, sir," said Mrs. Dodd piteously.
"He shall, madam, if it is as I suspect. I will stay here all night but I will master this case; and lay it before the Board myself without delay."
Julia looked at her mother, and then asked if it would be wrong to inquire "the poor gentleman"s name?"
"Humph!" said the official; "I ought not to reveal that without his consent. But stay! he will owe you much, and it really seems a pity he should not have an opportunity of expressing his grat.i.tude. Perhaps you will favour me with your address: and trust to my discretion. Of course, if he does not turn out as sane as he seems, I shall never let him know it."
Mrs. Dodd then gave her address; and she and Julia went home with a glow about the heart selfish people, thank Heaven, never know.
Unconsciously these two had dealt their enemy and Alfred"s a heavy blow; had set the train to a mine. Their friend at the office was a man of another stamp than Alfred had fallen in with.
Meantime Alfred was subjected to hourly mortifications and irritations.
He guessed the motive, and tried to baffle it by calm self-possession: but this was far more difficult than heretofore, because his temper was now exacerbated and his fibre irritated by broken sleep (of this poor David was a great cause), and his heart inflamed and poisoned by that cruel, that corroding pa.s.sion jealousy.
To think, that while he was in prison, a rival was ever at his Julia"s ear, making more and more progress in her heart! This corroder was his bitter companion day and night; and perhaps of all the maddeners human cunning could have invented this was the worst. It made his temples beat and his blood run boiling poison. Indeed, there were times when he was so distempered by pa.s.sion that homicide seemed but an act of justice, and suicide a legitimate relief. For who could go on for ever carrying h.e.l.l in his bosom up and down a prison yard? He began to go alone! to turn impatiently from the petty troubles and fathomless egotism of those afflicted persons he had hitherto forced his sore heart to pity. Pale, thin, and wo-begone, he walked the weary gravel, like the lost ones in that Hall of Eblis whose hearts were a devouring fire. Even an inspector with a naked eye would no longer have distinguished him at first sight from a lunatic of the unhappiest cla.s.s, the melancholiac.
"Ipse suum cor edens hominum vestigia vitans."
Mrs. Archbold looked on and saw this sad sight, not with the pity it would once have caused, but with a sort of bitter triumph lightened by no pleasure, and darkened by the shadow of coming remorse. Yet up to this time she had shown none of that inconstancy of purpose which marks her s.e.x; while she did go far to justify the poet"s charge:
"Nor h.e.l.l a fury like a woman scorned."
Rooke had a hint to provoke Alfred to violence such as would justify them in subjecting so popular a patient to bodily restraint, composing draughts, and other quick maddeners. Rooke entered into the game zealously from two motives; he was devoted to Mrs. Archbold, and he hated Alfred, who had openly defied him, and mortified his vanity about Frank Beverley.
One Sat.u.r.day Alfred was ordered out to walk with Rooke and Hayes and Vulcan. He raised no objection: suspected, felt homicidal, suppressed the impulse, and by this self-command he got time to give that letter to Beverley with instructions.
But, all the walk, he was saying to himself that Julia was in the house, and he was kept away from her, and a rival with her; this made him sicken and rage by turns. He came back in a state verging on fury.
On entering the yard poor Beverley, who had done his bit of cunning, and by reaction now relapsed into extra simplicity, came running, and said, "I"ve done it; she has got it."
"What have you done? Who has got what?" cried Rooke.
"Don"t tell, Frank."
"If you don"t I"ll shake your life out, ye young blackguard," cried Rooke, seizing him and throttling him till he was black in the face.
Alfred"s long-pent fury broke out: he gnashed his teeth and dashed his fist in Rooke"s face.
Rooke staggered back and bellowed with pain and anger, then rushing at him incautiously, received a stinger that staggered him, and nearly closed his right eye. He took the hint, and put himself in a posture that showed he was skilled in the art of self-defence. He stopped two blows neatly, and returned a heavy one upon the ribs. Alfred staggered back some steps, but steadied himself, and, as Rooke rushed in too hastily to improve his advantage, caught him heavily on the other eye, but lost his own balance a little, which enabled Rooke to close; then came a sharp short rally of re-echoing blows, and Rooke, not to be denied, got hold of his man, and a wrestling bout ensued, in which Alfred being somewhat weakened by misery and broken rest, Rooke"s great weight and strength enabled him, after a severe struggle, to fall with his antagonist under him, and knock the breath out of his body for the moment. Then Hayes, who had stood prudently aloof, came in and helped handcuff him. They could not walk up and down him for the Robin, who stood by with a professional air to see fair play.
"Ah, cold iron is your best chance," he said satirically. "Never you mind, sir: you hit quick and well: I"d back _you_ at long odds in the ring: both his peepers are in deep mourning." He added, "A cow can beat a man wrestling."
When Alfred was handcuffed they turned him loose. It soon transpired, however, that he was now a dangerous maniac (Formula) and to be confined in the noisy ward.
On hearing this he saw the trap he had fallen into; saw and trembled. He asked himself what on earth he should do; and presently the saying came back to him, "And this is the highest stroke of art, to turn evil into good." He argued thus: Wolf"s love of money is my great evil; he will destroy me for money, do anything for money. Then suppose I offer him money to be honest. He begged an interview with Dr. Wolf on business.
This was accorded at once. He asked the doctor plump whether he received a large sum to detain him under pretence of insanity.
"Not very, considering the trouble you sometimes give, Mr. Hardie," was the dry reply.
"Well, then, Justice shall outbid rascality for once. I am a sane man, and you know it; a man of my word, and you know it. I"ll give you a thousand pounds to let me out of this place."
Dr. Wolf"s eyes sparkled.
"You shall have any bond or security you like; and the money within a week of my deliverance."
Dr. Wolf said he should be delighted to do it, if he could conscientiously.
At this piece of hypocrisy Alfred"s cheek reddened, and he could not speak.
"Well, well, I do see a great change in you for the better," said Dr.